[Sloop Scoop 2007] #2, update for June 25 - July 1

[Sloop John B]

Hey cruisers and crew--

(**The mast it up.  Skip to the calender if you just want to know the 
sailing date updates.**)

The mast stepping started off well:  the water was clear and flat, the 
winds were light, the temperature was late-afternoon perfect, and the 
forecasted storm had gracefully avoided the afternoon in Jackson Park (is 
that better, Charlie?).  I had eked out enough potential help. I spent the 
previous night on the boat and had everything ready and in place, all pins 
and rings and instruments and hardware tools--a first.  When Mary and I got 
there at 1600 hours, Gordon had already moved the mast in place and put on 
instruments and the spreaders--complete with red and green tape on the port 
and starboard spreader boots and new red and green telltales on the 
shrouds.  He said he thought I'd appreciate the color coding.  I did.  I 
just said I hoped he had help with the mast. He did.  It's too heavy for 
one person to move around.

So we *just* needed to pull the boat up, hook up the new wind instrument, 
and we'd be ready to go.  Piece of cake.  Except for two more people we 
needed to help.  I called Marie who showed up in 20 minutes (the joys of 
crew from Hyde Park!), and called another slightly potential helper that I 
couldn't reach, so I couldn't even try begging.  Gordon managed to recruit 
another boat owner named Brian, who was strong and knew something about 
putting up a mast, so we finally had a quorum, and the steward started to 
raise the mast.

All was going smoothly.  We hooked up the the new forestay and  . . . it 
looked about two feet too long--which was impossible but that's how it 
looked. It wouldn't hold up any mast or sail--it sagged miserably. New 
things are great, but not when they don't fit.  We hooked up the jib 
halyards and topping lift as makeshift forestays, and attached the other 
shrouds that were willing to be attached without fanfare.

The starboard forward lower wanted fanfare.

"How many people does it take to attach a shroud?  Four:  one to push the 
mast over, one to adjust the turnbuckle, one to tighten the upper, and one 
to pull down on the shroud.  No, five: one to stand to the boat in the 
right spot to make the boat come up to meet the shroud."

We needed that shroud.  It was one of the only things that would keep the 
mast from falling backwards when the ginpole (crane) line that had been 
holding it up was released (that took some fanfare too.  The joys of friction.

So we walked the boat back from the gin pole to figure out what was going 
on with forestay, and I placed two calls to the rigger saying "this thing 
is way too long!!!!"  We detached from the bottom and put it on the 
dock.  We realized 1) it had come unscrewed from roller furling and 2) the 
bottom part of the turnbuckle still had an inch.  Now five inches doesn't 
seem like a lot when you look at the forestay which is sagging two feet 
along a 39 foot mast, but the Pythagorean theorem is an amazing thing, and 
taking five inches off the hypotenuse does a lot more than one would 
think.  The headfoil (which is the metal track the sail goes up one) and 
the top part of the furler (which is heavy and could have smashed hands if 
it kept falling) needed to get pulled up so we tied up the top part of the 
roller furler tight with a halyard and pulled it up the forestay out of the 
way.

After much finagling, and reattaching things in the wrong order and then 
reattaching things again, we pulled the forestay back over to the boat and 
it was short enough!  Hooray!  Now let's lower the furler and the 
headfoil.  Uh, yeah, we tied it tight.  It doesn't want to come down. The 
joys of friction. We shook we swore, we got out the bosun's chair so I 
could reluctantly head up the mast.  And then Mary, undaunted, performed 
some magic and it started moving down.  We kept the shaking the stay and 
whipping the line and muttering incantations until it got down far enough 
to fish it the rest of the way with a borrowed extra long (12 foot) boat 
hook.  Whew.  I hate heights.

Then we had to part the foils enough to get the sail feeder back on.  Three 
people and fifteen minutes later and it was attached.  Gordon had been at 
the harbor all day, so when I said I think we're okay and you can go home 
now.  He said he didn't need to be told more than once and was out of there!

Marie and Mary had the task of figuring out which rigging went where (I'm 
always in teacher mode--active learning method) and we got the boom and 
related lines hooked up to steady everything and left around 2045 
hours.   Long day.  But productive.

So . . all of that to say the schedule for next week has changed.  First, 
we can sail!!!  Second, I forgot I had a retirement party to go to, and I 
just found out I have a going away party for someone at the Adler, on 
Thursday, so I'm switching the date next week to Wednesday.  The nice thing 
about Wednesday nights is there is food for sale at the yacht club.

Hope to see you on the water soon and often!

Skipper Schuy/Lisa

Land:  773-752-6266, Cell:  773-343-0153
----------------------
SCHEDULE (a lot of really tentative dates, many things permitting . . .)

___Monday 6/25
Fitting and tuning time and shakedown sail.  Meet at the harbor at 1830 hours.

___Wednesday 6/27
Backup date for mast stepping. Meet at the harbor at 1830 hours.  There is 
food to buy there.

___Friday 6/29
Possible sail if it was stepped earlier. Meet at the harbor at 1830 hours.

___Sunday 7/01
Midday sail.  Meet at the harbor at 1100 hours.  Bring something to grill 
and something to share.  We should be back by 1600 hours at the latest, 
most likely sooner.

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ON THE HORIZON

Fireworks, July 3rd  We won't go all the way downtown--probably just 
halfway there to stay out of traffic. Last year my pirate crew wanted to 
try to board the Windy and I didn't let them so I have to keep them away 
from temptation.

Wednesday and Saturday fireworks cruises

Longer cruise/crossing in August